what is interesting now is, when people talk to you off the record or in the back ground, people who work for the president. they're a lot more comfortable now talking about what he doesn't know. the question is does the president come to recognize that? but yes. i think ignorance at this point might be their best defense. >> i hear a lot of that, too. thank you. so for being with us. for making time with us. thank you. >> hi, nicole. >> we have some basketball to talk about. >> who won last night? >> cleveland was winning. >> cleveland lost. go warriors! >> if it's thursday, james comey is on capitol hill and guess what, so are we. good evening. i'm chuck todd live from capitol hill.

james comey' testimony wasn't good thing for the president or faith in government or the justice department or even arguably for comey himself. we'll see partisans of both sides spin what happened today. but no avoiding it. things smell all around and it starts at the top. under oath, comey testified that special counsel bob mueller will probably be investigating whether or not the president obstructed justice. according to mr. comey, mr. trump urged him to shut down probe into national security adviser mike flynn. >> i don't think it is fair for me to say whether or not it was an effort to obstruct. i took it as a very concerning thing but that's something the special counsel will look into whether or not it is an offense. >> he said that he believed the president was directing him to shut down the flynn pbe whe he said i he you can let flynn go. >> i took it as a direction.

>> this is president of the united states saying, this is what he wants me to do. i didn't obey it. >> you may have taken it as direction but that's not what he said. he said, i hopeful. >> those were his exact words. correct. >> even if you give president the full benefit of the doubt, it doesn't change the picture of what comey painted of him. >> i was honestly concerned that he might lie about the nature of our meeting so i thought it really important to document. >> first he used the "l" word. here's the justification for firing. >> although law required no reason at all to fire an fbi director, the administration then chose to defame me and more importantly, the fbi by saying that the organization was in disarray. that it was poorly led. that the work force had lost

confidence in its leader. those were lies, plain and simple. >> there's the second time. here's what he told angus king about the president's later denials. >> the president was asked whether he had urged you to shut down the investigation into michael flynn. the president responded, no, no. next question. is that an accurate statement? >> i don't believe it is. >> it's my judgment that i was fired because of the russia investigation. i was fired in some way to change, or the endeavour was to change the way the investigation was being conducted. that's a very big deal. not just because it involves me. the name of the fbi and its work requires that it not be the subl of political consideration. >> comey testified the president asked him for his loyalty during

a conversation about whether or not comey would keep his job. to be fair, there were serious questions raised about comey himself. he admitted as a private citizen, he directed a leak to force appointment of a special counsel. it was a remarkable admission pufblt there's put a spotlight only question and answer among others, i know what other parts of his testimony that they believe common trait president he from what you might call the worst-case scenario. here's what i'm talking about. >> did the president at any time ask you to stop the fbi investigation into russian involvement in the 2016 u.s. elections? >> not to my understanding, no. >> i gather from all this that you're willing to say while you were director, the president of the united states was not under investigation. is that a fair statement? >> that's correct. >> and as you might expect, the president's outside counsel mark kasowitz said comey is telling the truth about the good stuff like the president not being

under investigation and not trying onmpede the russia probe. but heays he is lying about all the stuff that makes him look bad. so it's in the court of public opinion at this point. >> as we were discussing, senator, you got your question got him to admit being a leaker. >> did you know that was coming? >> i must admit i did not know. it came as a big surprise to me. in fact i was stunned at the revelation. when i asked the question, i wondered whom the director had shown his memos to. i did not expect him to admit that he had given them to a friend of his with the express

purpose of having that friend leak it to the media in order to prompt the appointment of a special counsel, which it did. >> your reaction to that. appropriate? >> i don't think it was appropriate. i would argue that that was a government produced document. it was work document. and i think it qualifies as a leak. the irony is that the former director of the fbi has always been very annoyed when there are leaks. and then it turns out that he leaked a document himself. >> do you believe director comey was forthcoming in. >> do i. i believe his testimony which was under oath was candid, straightforward, it was quite thorough. he answered the questions that

he could answer. there were some that got into the lane of the special counsel which he could not answer. >> you went behind closed doors. obviously there's plenty you can't share because of that. obviously there's classifying. but did he answer the questions? >> he answered more questions in the private closed session. but that was a very short session compared to this morning's. >> why? >> i'm not sure and we on benefit from a longer session with mr. comey in private. >> a couple things. since you now have the president's personal lawyer confirming some parts of director comey's testimony, denying other parts, including the direct quotes which are at issue here. should congress subpoena?

do you want congress, do you want to scene thubpoena? >> if the tapes exist, i believe the special counsel should have them and our committee should have them. after all, there are two different investigations with two different purposes. our investigati is a broad investigation into russian attempts to influence the elections last fall. a counter intelligence investigation. >> okay. do you think it needs to be subpoenaed? >> well, i would hope that the white house would voluntarily turn over any relevant documents or tapes. there's a big issue as to whether the times even exist or whether or not that was some sort of tweet that the president put out for whatever purpose. >> do you think the president needs to clear this up? >> yes. i do. i think it is important that it be cleared up. >> look, you have a he said, he

said here. you're going to be put in the position of deciding who is more credible, the former director of the fbi or the president of the united states. >> it will be the special counsel's job who will have access to more witnesses than we do. and looking at the criminal aspect of this. if you're talking about an obstruction of justice issue, that is the job of the special counsel. but i think it is important for us to know the extent of white house involvement or the trump campaign involvement and whether or not there was any collusion with the russians last fall. by any member of president trump's cile. >> it is not clear to me whether or not directo comey confirmed whether there is now an investigation to whether the president obstructed justice. are you clear? is there an active investigation

by the special counsel on whether the president obstructed justice? >> i believe that mr. comey confirmed that as of the date that he was dismissed, on may 9, there was no investigation of the president himself. there may well be, there undoubtedly are investigations of people in the president's circle. >> that i understand. i'm talking about the president himself and the obstruction of justice issue. during the testimony he implied the special counsel was investigating whether this was obstruction of justice. >> i think wasn't clear. i think he said that he couldn't opine on that but it is something that one would expect. >> what unanswered question do you feel like is still there that really bothers you? >> well, we still don't have an answer to the basic question of

whether or not members of president trump's campaign staff collaborated with the russians. it is pretty clear that the russians tried to influence the election. that's not to say they changed votes. but it is clear that they tried through a public information and disinformation campaign, the relee of e-mails, to plant false stories to influence the election. what is not clear, and what we don't know the answer to, a very important question of whether or not any members of president trump's campaign were involved in that effort. >> all right. i'll leave it there. one of your colleagues is about to get in here. i know it's been a long day. nice to see you. i want to quickly highlight another big moment. senator diane feinstein asking director comey why he didn't tell the president that asking

about the flynn investigation was wrong. >> you're big. you're strong. i know the oval office and what happens when people walk in. there is a certain amount of intimidation. but why didn't you stop and say mr. president, this is wrong. i cannot discuss this with you. >> that's a great question. maybe if write strongwere stron would have. i was so stunned by the conversation that i just took it in. the only thing i could think to say, i was playing in my mind. i could remember every word he said. i was playing in my mind, what should my response be? i've seen the tweet about tapes lt. i hope there are tapes. maybe other people would be stronger in that circumstance but that was, that's how i

condted myself. i hope i never have another opportunity. maybe if did i, i would do it better. >> diane feinstein is a member of several committees. senator, nice to see you. >> nice to see you. >> i'm going to begin with you where i ended with senator collins. after all of this today, what is unanswered from director comey? did he leave anything unanswered that you feel like still needs attention? >> well, i think what was unanswer unanswered was who can possibly replace him? he has the strength, i have to take this out. >> that's okay. we understand. it is echoey in here. >> he has the strength. he has the ability. i think he's been a very good fbi director. >> you weren't happy with how he

handled the clinton e-mail. >> that's right. and i told him so. but as i listened to him and i saw his credibility and i saw what he went through. i thought what a tragedy that this has happened. >> i want to ask, are you left with the impression, because there's some confusion here. is the president currently under investigation by the special counsel? one of your colleagues said there's no way comey would be testifying if, that special counsel robert mueller would even letim testify. >> i can't answer the question because i don't know. when bob mueller takes over the investigation, those decisions welcome made. >> i feel like today was a bad day for the justice department. whether you were loretta lynch, the trump justice department or

with attorney general sessions. if i'm the average citizen watching today, i had the former director of the fbi saying obama's justice department got politicized, trump's justice department got politicized. how do you recover from this? >> i don't think the justice department is politicized. >> he implied it. >> if that's what you mean by politicized -- >> the implication. >> the justice department has to be independent from the white house. no question about that. there by, they're independent from us. they follow the law independently. that's the way it should be. and i think with director comey, as he was testifying. what i saw was the unordinary national loss this was. he's only been director for

slightly less than four years. it's not true that the department is in a bad mess. as he good manager. people respect him and they work for him. so i think this is very hard on the department. i thought did he a very fine job without a note. he spoke from the heart. he spoke what he believed was the truth. and i don't think you can ask for anything more from a witness. >> is it necessary considering we have a he said, em, with the president's lawyer and mr. comey about, which quotes were accurate, that the president's lawyer are embracing, and some that they are denying. is it time for congress to issue a subpoena that says, if there are tapes, send them. >> i was thinking that. yes. >> do you think you can issue a the bland subpoena that will do that? >> i don't know. i'll find out. >> is it something with the

judiciary committee? >> the hearing is being done by intel now so i would like the walk the the chairman and the ranking member and i will do that. there may be some action by the judiciary committee. i need a little time for the questions and answers to sink in. but i think for me it is pretty clear that there was an attempt by the president to ma anymore late the director of the fbi. to lift the cloud which was the russian investigatn. e russian investigation will go on. and it is not going to stop. the president should have known that. and the president should have known -- >> do you think it is a fair explanation he doesn't understand the ways with which washington does business?

is that a good excuse? >> well, this isn't the ways washington does business as much as you kick out the fbi director's boss from the meeting, the attorney general, and you meet with him alone. and you ask him some things you shouldn't ask him. i think we all know what we can ask and not ask. that he is entitled to function independently. once that independence is in question, it is highly problem the aching. can you confirm any fbi director the president nominates considering what we heard today? >> i'll tell you what. if this new nominee won't show a semblance of independence from the oval office, i won't vote for him. >> i have to leave 30th. it's busy. good to see you.

we're breaking down the key points of comey's testimony with our all star panel. just ahead. >> do you have any doubt that russia attempted to interfere in the 2016 elections? >> none. just like the people who own them, every business is different. but every one of those businesses will need legal help as they age and grow. whether it be help starting your business, vendor contracts or employment agreements.

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and add phone and tv for only $34.90 more a month. call today. comcast business. built for business. here are rubble senators on a february story from the "new york times." >> that report by "the new york times" was not true. is that a fair statement? >> in the main, it was not true. >> would it be fair to characterize that story as almost entirely wrong? >> yes. >> but it was this almost trumpian exchange with

republican senator that really caught my ear. >> you had mentioned before about some news stories and news accounts. without going into all the names and specific times and being able to dip into that, have there been news accounts about the russia investigation, collusion, about this whole event or accusations? as you read the story, you are stunned about how wronghey got the cts should. >> yes. there have been many, many stories about lots of stuffut especially about russia that are just dead wrong. >> the broad brush. the rnc is already pushing that exchange out on youtube. i get it. i'm not surprised. president trump already named the press the enemy of the american people. it seems some on capitol hill want to make sure the media goes down with everybody. there you go. nothing like the broad brush attacks. we'll be right back. by frequent, unpredictable abdominal pain or discomfort

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welcome back. it's panel time. matthew, editor-in-chief, and my colleague, chris matthews of course, host of "hardball" on msnbc. chris, don't take offense but i'm going to amy first. so amy, what did you hear today that makes you think this investigation is somehow going to get better for the president or worse for the president? >> yeah, chuck, i think if you went into this thinking you were going to find a bombshell, you didn't get it. or a smoking gun, that didn't come out of it either. but depending on where you are in the political spectrum, there is something for you to like. what you had from comey suggesting that he couldn't tell you for 100% certainty that there was no collusion, that he believes that he took it as a

quote, direction, the president wanted him to drop the flynn investigation, that he couldn't trust president. he had to write things down. that would make you feel better. if you are supportive of the president, think there's no smoking gun, you didn't get any of those from comey. that they were trying to stop a broader russian investigation with his comments. that the president of course, wasn't officially under investigation. and that comey went and actually leaked information himself through an intermediary to the "new york times." so it gave everybody a little something. i think what we're going to see at the end, everybody goes into their partisan corners, they find what they like out of testimony and we go forward and once again, it is really in the court of bob mueller. his decision. if it ends anywhere, we will have an answer. i have this feeling it will take long time before we get anything difinitive from him.

>> chris matthews, was he a good witness? was he a compelling witness? was he a forthright witness? >> he is under oath and he knew it. and he was a very prepared witness. i thought the written testimony was fabulous, it was colorful, it was evocative, the scene in the green room of the state floor of the white house was very powerful. he talked with giant detail about things like the grandfather clock door of the oval office. he talked about who was waiting on the other side of the door. you got a very clear hard to deny picture of truth. now, no picture is total but did i think he was awful tough to take on in fact. i'm not sure the lawyer mark kasowitz came along and challenged him on fact. he just threw something at him, as would you for someone with $1,500 an hour.

i thought the president brought in a lawyer at $1,500 an hour, not a good day for the president of the united states when you're stlang as a defendant with a criminal lawyer. his own team was not there. the white house counsel wasn't there. the white house press people wasn't there. it was him alone as private citizen defendant. and thato me is a brutal day for a president of the united states. worse than nixon in a way. nix only was defending a presidency. this guy is defending himself as an individual. remember the cloud over the presidency? nixon had a cancer over the presidency. it was good a guy who became president but isn't a president in the way of having the institution around him. >> you came away with saying, well, it is going to be, if the president is impeached someday, it will be a tweet that under did him. and you specifically i.d.'d a specific tweet in your column

today. walk me through it. >> according to jim comey's testimony, he was fired by the president. he was kind of stunned and shocked. he didn't know what to do. the friday following the firing, president trump had that twitter rant where he said, with the times, using the quotation marks, comey better watch out. if there are tapes of our conversations. and comey told the senate today that it was that tweet that put in his mind the idea of getting the memos out there into the public. and that's where this whole issue of him directing his friend, the columbian law professor to leak the memo to the "new york times" in the express desire, comey says this in front of the senate, in front of the world, to launch a special counsel and put it in the special counsel realm. the independent investigation. so i'm seeing jim comey lay bread crumb for director mueller

saying, the president of the united states may have obstructed justice in his handling of the mike flynn false statements investigation. >> there's a shakespearean quality that it is a tweet. and b, in his obsession with trying to get comey to say publicly that he was not a target of the investigation, his obsession with trying to get comey to say that has now led to him being investigated for something else. in this case, obstruction of justice. we think. by the way, that is bothering me today. we don't know. it was implied by comey that maybe yes, the president is now under investigation. but nobody has confirmed that. >> and nobody outside of mueller can confirm that. so we're still, as i said in the beginning, back to where we started. this is just, it seems to me, the reality here in this white

house, how many problems the president is dealing with come right back to his own behavior. whether it is twitter, the interview with lester holt where he admitted that he fired him because of the russia investigation. this is all self-inflicted. we haven't even had an outside crisis. a crisis not from within. and i think that will be the next thing to watch for. >> well, we have a real crisis. i would argue we have a crisis in the middle east with what's going on in the arabian peninsula. that's a crisis that may have been caused, may have been inspired by the president and another tweet that may have been inspired. chris matthews, today was a bad day for loretta lynch and jeff sessions. i have to say, as a private citizen, i could watch this testimony and come away with, gee, is any justice department independent anymore? >> well, yeah.

i think they're clute rollatera damage. this is trump's behavior, his persona. and i don't think he is impeachable yet or anything like that. we're way ahead of all that. but his behavior is inevitably going to lead to a problem in the constitution. he doesn't accept that we have a government based on limited law, limited power. that's what we have in this kriflt everyone is limited. senators have a limited number of authority. justices do. cabinet members do. he is trying to shape the united states government and our system of government to him. he is trying to make it that he can be ceo again and everyone will be one of his puppets. if he can't overcome that tendency, inevitably he will challenge the constitution because he seems to want to fit it to him. to have this meeting with the

fbi director and chase away the vice president. when he went to lavrov and kisly kislyak, he said i want to drop the whole russian thing. not just the flynn case. so you said he is doing it to himself. if he keeps behaving like, there he will do it to himself. >> chris, you will appreciate. this i have a producer named john in my ear saying i have to go to break. i think you know that feel well. >> i know him well. >> up ahead, the legal questions that were raised today including by the president's lawyer. we'll be right back. the mummy has returned. what the... [ intense music playing ] [ guitar playing ] [ intense music playing ] [ guitar playing ] [ intense music playing ] [ guitar playing ] [ drum beating ] [ distant screams ] [ drum beating ]

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welcome back. we've got lots of legal questions. after james comey as he testimony today, did he have the authority to leak the contents to a reporter? president trump's attorney wondered that himself. >> mr. comey has now admitted that he is one of these leakers.

today mr. comey admitted that he unilaterally and surreptitiously made under authorized disclosures to the press of communications with the president. >> but the white house specifically did say president trump would not assert executive privilege for the hearing. that's not all. is the president under investigation right now? could he be forced to testify and does comey's testimony today make a case of obstruction of justice against the president? i'm not a lawyer and i won't play one on tv. but to talk about all this, i want to bring in a lawyer who knows what he's talking about. stewart baker, a former counsel at the nsa. thank you for coming on, sir. >> great to be here. >> let me start with the allegation the president's personal attorney made. he threw it out there. he didn't directly make the allegation but implied maybe the leak was illegal.

so let me start with this. director comey's memos, whose property are they? >> they are actually, according to the filibustbi's guidance fu created it as part of your job, that is fbi information and the memos belong to the fbi. there is an argument that he should have gone through pre publication reviewest shouldn't have released they will. it's not clear that makes it a crime but it could well be improper as well as a bad idea. >> i want to ask you. walk me through it. i assume you know this we know is anybody. is it always a crime to leak if you're leake from the nsa, what is the line of criminal, when it becomes a crime to leak? >> so, it is a crime to leak classified information. and jim comey said that he wrote

these memos so they didn't have classified information so that he could share them. so it is pretty clearly not going to be the kind of crime that is usually associated with leaks from the fbi or from the nsa. it could also be a crime of obstruction of justice. i don't see that in this either. so probably if there is a legal violation, it is either a violation of the requirement that you undergo pre publication review for disclosure of fbi information, or perhaps a privacy act violation in the sense that the director was releasing private information in an fbi file about the president. >> all right. let me ask you about the other big, i would say as i debatable

issue here definitely the former director today confirm there is an obstruction of justice investigation that's been opened or not? what is your understanding? what did you hear when he was listening to that part of the testimony? >> i thought he was trying to say nothing on it. part of it is he doesn't know anymore what the state of the investigation is. he has a lot of confidence in bob mueller and he expects bob mueller to look at this very carefully and i think he probably does not want to crowd mueller. >> he believed, if bob mueller were actually pursuing an obstruction of justice case against the president, then he would not have allowed james comey to testify in public. do you concur with that in.

>> i am not so sure. at the end of the day, the investigation is probably five minutes long and whether to bring a case is months of thinking. because the facts are pretty straightforward. it is a conversation. maybe two. and whether that is obstruction of justice is more a judgment of what one should do in these circumstances with the president of this kind making statements that are ambiguous at least. and in the absence of something more than that, i would be surprised if mueller decides this is something that ought to be prosecuted. >> all right. i'm going to leave it there. i have a lot more but i don't have enough time. thank you for coming in. we're right back. we've got a lot more from capitol hill including the panel.

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that would be my dream. welcome back. there were a lot of things jim comey could not answer tay

because the answers would get in thway of the investigation. we kounld more than 15 different questions. he said he couldn't comment whether the fbi confirmed the allegations in that dossier nor whether the dossier was currently being investigated on and he said nonsense is what urged him to hold the press conference on the e-mail server. he couldn't answer why he said attorney general sessions would recuse himself two weeks before he did and he couldn't say if he knew about contact between the trump campaign and russia. that brings us to the lid. amy, matthew, chris. matthew, let me start with you. trump supporters today, i think they feel as if they have enough fuel to sort of make themselves feel better. what about that next ring of the republican party, matthew? they're not never trumpers. they're trump skeptics. i would say 80% of the congress

in the u.s. senate, for instance. did trump help or hurt himself today? >> that i think group of republicans is worried. i think the president clearly is in a legal fight his personal attorney out there answering questions about what's happening and director comey's testimony. but there is also the political question to think about. we have a special election in georgia coming up very soon. if the democrats win that seat, tom price's former seat, i think it will send another shock wave through the political system and worry a lot of those republicans you're talking about. too, remember on theegislative schedule, we have health ce and the senate is still working on health care. and they have a very short window. basically this summer in order to get a health care bill and the sense on capitol hill is if you don't get the health care bill passed, then trump's legislative agenda is also seriously in jeopardy. so i think there is a lot of worry on capitol hill. one note about comey's refusal to answer. remember, that's exactly what made president trump so frustrated with him in the first

place because president trump kept asking him, why can't you tell people that i'm not under investigation? and when he didn't do that in live testimony, i think that may have actually sealed comey's fate in terms of his employment. and it turns out that at that time president trump was not under investigation. a you kno >> you know, amy, i feel what got lost, this was not a hearing about the russia investigation. this was the president's motive behind the firing of james comey. is the russia investigation getting lost here? >> no, i don't think so. i think just to go back to matthew's point, if there is wobbliness among republicans, i sure didn't see it today in the questioning. most of the republican senators who questioned comey were looking to provide some cover for the president right now. you don't see rank and file voters or members abandoning this president. he still has approval ratings up

in the high 80s. there is talk about a bill that may get out soon on the senate side to be voted on. who knows it's going to pass or not. so, i don't think there is going to be any sort of abandonment of this president either by voters or by members of congress. but the way that i look at this russia investigation now, chuck, is i don't know if you played these games when you were a kid, but where you have a whole bunch of tiles and underneath the tiles is a picture, right? you have to put -- as you flip over each tile, you get a sense of maybe what that picture is. but until you flip all of them over, you have no idea what it is because maybe it's a finger, maybe it's part of a dog, you don't know, right? until you get all of them. so, what we're all doing every day on this russia investigation is putting over one other tile, putting over another tile here, and then expecting it to make sense. and, of course, your partisan lens is going to tell you what you think that picture is. >> chris, what's the next six months look like? matthew outlined, i would argue

the next six weeks we'll find out whether the president has a shot at having a legislative agenda or not. health care passes the senate, maybe that opens the door for other. if not, it's probably hopelessly gridlock. but what does the next six months look like with this cloud that's going nowhere? >> well, the history books are getting written already in terms of what happened and that is that moving forward, you have the fact that this hearing today was really about why was comey fired. he was fired because of the russia investigation. it was pretty clear. on the republican side no one challenged that was the reason we're talking about. moving forward everybody seems to think there will be a collaboration between the senate intelligence committee and the special counsel, mr. mueller, to go after this thing. and they're going to keep going. it looks like mueller is gearing up, staffing up, bringing the best lawyers he can find from all the departments. this is a major all-star effort by mueller. and it's like that shot last night by kevin durant. he said at 45 seconds, i spent my whole life getting ready for

this shot, and i think that's true of mueller. i think that's true of today's testimony by comey. this is like the big thing of their lives, these guys. and i think they're going to try to get pay dirt here and try to prove that they're after something that's there. and i think this is going to be serious on mueller's part. >> all right. before midnight tonight, very quickly, all three of you, will the president be tweeting some form -- something about the comey hearings tonight? quickly. do you think yes or no? amy? >> no, i think he waits until the morning, he'll watch the shows. >> matthew? >> no, i don't think he's going to tweet about it. >> all right. chris. >> he's paid $1500 an hour not to tweet. i think he paid the lawyer to do the work. >> everybody betting on discipline. everybody is betting on discipline. we will bring you back and tell you how wrong you guys probably all are in 48 hours. all right. thank you all. after the break, james comey did shed light on a comment from the president that we all missed.

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welcome back. in case you missed it, in a day with anticipation, former director james comey finally revealed the answer to a question millions have been asking. at issue was something that president trump told him in confidence. it is also a moment shrouded in mystery from the moment it occurred. it happened at a white house meeting and not just any white house meeting, but one that has been the subject of endless speculation. the day, january 22nd, a

reception for law enforce many. we don't know if there are tapes of president trump's private conversations with comey as mr. trump has suggested. we do have videotape of this event. let's roll. >> oh, and there's james. he's become more famous than me. [ laughter ] >> director comey. [ applause ] >> yes, we all heard the new president say of comey, he's more famous -- become more famous than me, but what did he say after that? what did the president whisper in his fbi director's ear? well, finally today we know. >> you've seen the picture of me walking across the blue room and what the president whispered in my ear was, i really look forward to working with you. >> there you have it. just 2 1/2 months later president trump no longer looked forward to working with james comey and of course fired him. you have been staying tuned for

what happened next. anyway, that is all for nit. for the record with greta starts right now. all yours, greta. >> and thank you, chuck. is president trump now under investigation for obstruction of justice? >> was general flynn at that time in serious legal jeopardy? and in addition to that, you say the president was trying to obstruct justice or just seek for a way for mike flynn to save face given he had already been fired? >> general flynn at that point in time was in legal jeopardy. there was an open fbi criminal investigation of his statements in connection with the russian contacts and the contacts themselves. and, so, that was my assessment at the time. i don't think it's for me to say whether the conversation i had with the president was an effort to obstruct. i took it as a very disturbing thing, very concerning, but that's a conclusion i'm sure the